Ruud Kleinpaste: How to take cuttings

Being Dutch has a few advantages: getting free plants is important! My mum was known for taking cuttings all over Europe when the Kleinpaste Family was on Holiday in their foldable campervan/tent. We returned to the Netherlands with heaps of propagation material in the car – there was barely room for us, kids, to sit on the back seat! 

Mum was the gardener and she took cuttings – constantly experimenting. 

This time of the year (before deciduous shrubs and trees start to roll out the leaves for next season) is a good time for taking hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings. 

Your archetypal stem cuttings (or shoot cuttings) are planted in some nice mixture of potting mix, pumice/sand which becomes a well-drained habitat for the roots to form; 

There are many books and articles that can tell you and show you how to do that, but what strikes me as a minor miracle is the way plants literally change the function of their cells to create rootlets! 

Plants are made of myriads of cells – each has a distinct function in the plant: 

Executing photosynthesis, transporting fluids, transporting gases, turning into flowers, becoming fruits, or seeds… some become roots, others become shoots; Of course, a nice flat cluster of adjoining cells is known by gardeners as a LEAF . 

But when you put a stem cutting into the mix, the cells suddenly create areas where they form roots 

Yet a root cutting has cells that form brand-new shoots 

And leaf cuttings (think Begonias, African Violets and Cacti!) have to produce ROOTS and STEMS! 

So, all these cells can literally change their jobs and adapt to the new function, by simply creating new shapes. 

Taking cuttings and the success there-of depends enormously on what species you are trying to propagate, so: experiment! 

Take some hardwood cuttings and some semi-hardwood cuttings in one batch 

Some species will work best with softwood cuttings – others are best propagated by Layering. 

Rooting Hormones are often helpful (they come in softwood – medium hardwood – hardwood). There is evidence that Home-made “WillowWater” hormones are not as useful as some people think 

(A story for another day, I expect) 

Generalistics: 

Take cuttings from HEALTHY Plants 

Cuttings from young plants tend to root quicker 

DORMANT hardwood cuttings best taken after autumn and before spring-warmth 

Cuttings from FLOWERING twigs are often really HARD to strike; so: no flowering wood!! 

Keep cuttings in a tunnelhouse/glasshouse or… create a miniature cloche with a plastic bag 

Don’t over-water the cuttings – just a little moisture is enough! 

Leave some Leaves on the top of the cutting; trim the leaves from the bottom of the cutting 

Difficult plants to propagate often need some “bottom heat” (25 degrees C) 

And keep experimenting!!! 

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